Apple’s price hikes – how to pay less

Overnight, Apple raised prices on almost everything it sells. Macs, MacBooks, iPads, HomePods, the Apple TV — most of the lineup is up 20% to 25%. The iPhone, Apple Watch, and a handful of accessories were left out of the price hikes, at least for now. A sweep this broad is something the company has rarely, if ever, done.

If you’re wondering why your next upgrade suddenly costs a lot more, the short answer is AI. The boom has set off a global scramble for memory and storage, and consumer hardware is paying for it.

The memory crunch: how AI is eating the supply chain

The increases trace straight back to the cost of memory and storage chips. AI data centers are expanding fast, and that has sent demand through the roof. AI companies are buying up every bit of high-performance memory and storage they can get, which leaves consumer electronics makers fighting over what’s left and paying brutal wholesale prices for it.

The numbers tell the story. Apple’s cost for 12GB of LPDDR5X RAM went from $77 in Q1 to $145 in Q2 of this year — nearly double in a single quarter.

Tim Cook called the shortage a “hundred-year flood,” and said he’d “never seen anything like it in any area in over 40 years.”

Apple was actually late here. Competitors raised their prices months ago. Apple held the line as long as it could, but the wholesale jumps eventually made the old pricing impossible to sustain.

The warning signs

The timing caught a lot of people off guard, but the signals were there.

Last week, in the Wall Street Journal, Cook said Apple was doing what it could to keep these increases off customers, and called the situation “unsustainable.”

Apple’s statement to MacRumors hinted there’s more coming: “We’ve shielded our customers from these increases so far, but we have now reached a point where we need to begin raising prices…”

Note the word “begin.” By starting with iPads and Macs, Apple has left room to raise iPhone and Apple Watch prices in September, when the next models are announced.

The price breakdown

The increases hit every tier, from budget buyers to people speccing out pro machines.

Low end and smart home

• MacBook Neo: entry model up from $599 to $699 (16.7%).
• Base iPad (11th gen): $349 to $449 (28%).
• Apple TV 4K: $129 to $199, a 54% jump. The Ethernet model is now $250, up $100.
• HomePod mini: up 30% to $129 (was $99). The standard HomePod is now $349.

Mid-range

• M5 MacBook Air: up $200, from $1,099 to $1,299. Want 1TB of storage? You’re forced into a chip upgrade too, which pushes it to $1,600.
• M5 MacBook Pro (base): up $300, now starting at $2,000.
• iPad Air: up 25%, from $600 to $750. iPad Pro: up 20%, to $1,200.
• Mac mini (M4): the 256GB base model is back, but at $799 — $200 more than before.

High end

• RAM: going from 24GB to 48GB now runs $600, up from $400.
• Storage: 1TB to 2TB SSD is now $500, up from $400.
• Mac Studio: the M4 Max is up 25% ($500) to $2,500. The M3 Ultra takes the biggest hit of all — up 32% ($1,300), from $4,000 to $5,300.
• A fully loaded M5 Max MacBook Pro now runs $9,700. Yesterday it was $7,200.

How to protect your wallet

You can’t dodge all of this, but a smarter buying approach helps. Quick wins first, then the longer plays.

1. Only buy when you have to. The rule for this stretch is simple: don’t upgrade unless your current device is failing or genuinely holding back your work. The shortage is expected to drag on for the next year or two, so if you can wait, wait.

2. Use the retail lag. Apple already updated its own site, but third-party sellers like Amazon are slower to reprice old stock, especially during big sales like Prime Day. There are still deals on existing inventory:

• M5 MacBook Air: $950 on Amazon — $350 under the new MSRP.
• iPad Pro (11-inch): $900 — $300 below Apple’s new price.
• Base iPad (11th gen): $299 — about a third off Apple’s new $449.
• M5 MacBook Pro (16-inch): $4,150 — $850 under the new MSRP.

3. Beat the September hikes on phones and watches. Since this is rolling out in waves, the iPhone and Apple Watch are likely next. If you need either, buy the current model now while prices are stable and still discounted.

• Apple Watch Series 11: $279 right now — $120 off.
• Apple Watch Ultra 2: $650 — $150 off. That beats the roughly $1,000 expected for the redesigned next-gen Ultra.

4. Stack card perks on slower shipping. Buying through Amazon with an Amazon Prime Visa? Pick the slower shipping option at checkout for an extra 8% back. On a high-end Mac or iPad Pro, that adds up fast.